Fundamental Precious Metals (2011-03-22)

Safe haven demand intensifies

Gold managed to seal yesterday's trading session in positive territory, while adding further gains today as demand for haven intensifies in the midst of Libya's unrest and Japan's nuclear crisis.

Bullion for immediate delivery rose to $1,429.69 an ounce compared with the opening levels of $1,426.67 an ounce, while setting a high of $1,431.25 an ounce and a low of $1,426.04 an ounce. Futures rose 0.22% to trade at $1,429.600 an ounce.

The US dollar index, which tracks the performance of the currency against six-majors, traded at 75.34, compared with the opening levels of 75.44 while setting a high of 75.50 and a low of 75.29. Gold usually moves inversely with the dollar as commodities are a dollar weighted index.

Tensions in markets started to ease, as Japan's nuclear crisis is almost under control, where Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that there is light at the end of the tunnel, despite the fact that smoke continue from the nuclear reactor as efforts to restore the cooling system has not been installed fully yet.

Allied attacks performed by the U.S., U.K and France have grounded Muammar Qaddafi's air force that has been targeting rebel's stronghold at Benghazi. Oil continues to trade above $100.0 a barrel on MENA's unrest.

The Group of Seven decided last week to intervene in a coordinated and cooperative manner into the Forex market selling the Japanese yen against the dollar as an attempt to help the Japanese economy and work to reduce the value of the yen, which reached its highest level since the Second World War after the devastating earthquake that hit Japan On March 11 which caused the emergence of the possibility of a nuclear catastrophe.

Technically speaking, the metal's trend remains to the upside as far as the support at $1,390.00 an ounce remains intact and the dollar continues to weaken, while the 100-day MA support level is set at 1,374.00 an ounce.

Gold's trading remains above the support at 1,425.00 an ounce, where if breached it will pave the way for the pair to test the support at %1,410.00 an ounce, but the general trend remain to the upside with initial targets set at 1,435.00 an ounce and probably return to trade near the achieved record around $1,445.00 an ounce.

As for metal Fixes (Mar 21); Gold fixed at AM Fix was set at $1,427.75 an ounce while the PM fixing (MAR 21) was set at $1,432.00 an ounce; meanwhile silver fixing was set at $36.16000 an ounce and Platinum AM Fixing (Mar 21) was set at $1,740.00 an ounce, and at 1,741.00 an ounce during the PM fixing (Mar 21); finally ending with Palladium AM fixing set at $741.00 at (Mar 21) AM fixing, while the PM fixing (Mar 21) was set at $743.00 an ounce.

Other Metals

Silver for immediate delivery traded at $36.06 an ounce compared with the opening levels of $36.08 an ounce, while setting a high of $36.34 an ounce and a low of $35.87 an ounce. Silver future contracts traded lower by 0.04% or 0.016 to trade at 35.985 an ounce

Platinum for immediate delivery traded higher by $4.0, at $1,743.500 an ounce, while Palladium gained by $3.50 to trade at $742.00 an ounce.